There has to be a better way......

[neverputasockinatoaster]

So, how can I help make it better?

I am a teacher and I work in a MS primary school. We have several children in school who are on the spectrum. (I'm in an 'inclusive' county so we get little support). As my DS is possible ASD/ADHD I am reading and researching but even before then I did my best to find out how I could help the children in my care because that's my job.
I am saddened to read about the struggles that some of you have but I am equally saddened by the lack of knowledge and undersatinding among my colleagues that result in them and the children they teach being stressed and upset.
I think there has to be a better way. I know our school needs someone to speak out for the ASD and ADHD children. I think it needs to be me.
So, what do I say? What knowledge do I need? Can anyone recommend a course/qualification for teachers that means they might listen to me?
(Currently engaged in a long 'discussion' about sensory over stimulation and the fact that a child might need a different start to the day....... but he 'just has to accept this is how it is')

What can I do?

An MSc or diploma in ABA would be my number one recommendation.
Failing that, take a course at Treehouse

Thanks moondog, I will look at the website in more depth tomorrow afternoon when I am not working.

Have you read the SEN COP from end to end?

Have you read the SEN Toolkit.
Do you keep up to date on SEN advice published by the Dept for Education (the old cirruculars etc).

Could you underake the same training as the SENCO?

Have you read the educational sections of the NAS website?

Have you read Tony Attwood's books?

Very worthy of you to want to help - but I'll guarantee that the minute it looks like costing your school or LA money you'll be directed to stop immediately.

My LA do an online ASD training module, (I am doing myself at the moment to check what they are teaching, ). Your authority may need to sign up for it? but you might be able to do it independantly... it only costs the TA and teachers £30 to do I think...

People have also been very complimentary about the OU autism course, and as that is done from home and thus as and when you can it might be a good option?

Not saying either is the answer.... but they might be useful to complete in order to provide evidence for the the very sensible assetions you are already making

The best thing you can do is proper baseline assessments and detailed monitoring and set high expectations. This means those children who can manage in mainstream will make progress, and those who can't it will become obvious more quickly with less stress to the child and parent and you as a school will have the data to prove the child's progress is inadequate.
Wishy washy unmeasurable targets make it impossible for parents to say my child has failed and needs more.
You should do ABA but thats the route to major conflict.
You could look at more LA friendly schemes like "Inclusion for All', ICAN courses, precision teaching, using IT (ipads in school, Headsprout)
And keep very clear data of each intervention and whether it is working
So all the 'inclusion' advice needs to be mapped on an IEP - even if it makes it 3 pages long and evaluated week to week. That way you will be able to show the yawning gaps in provision.
I can send you some ABA prepared IEPs as a guide if you pm me with your email you will see how detailed they are and how progress is evaluated daily.
So for eg you may be able to show that changing the environment or using visual timetables has made no difference to a child's behaviour - simply by counting how many times they kick off and whether this increases or reduces.
ABA data sheets / learning how to take proper data is a great tool to start with.
Also learn about using rewards for children on spectrum. A proper reward scheme tailored to their motivations is the basis of any proper behaviour system

I agree with Agnes, that proper SMART IEPS which are reviewed every 6 weeks, and if targets aren't met then things are changed, might really help.

1. At my school targets on IEPs are never challenging. They're always woolly and ridiculously easy.

1. When my DC fail their woolly and ridiculously easy targets, nothing happens. No change to the teaching method or level of support is given.

1. At my school IEPs are only reviewed twice or 3 times a year.

If you had really good 6 weekly IEPS. Then you would help every child on the SEN register. And you could become a 'learning school' - ie you would learn from your own mistakes, and then correct them, and then learn more from your corrections.

Every thing we do at my work is set up as a 3 week experiment. At the end of the 3 weeks we decide what worked, and what doesn't, and change the experiment.....

neverputasockinatoaster

You really need to gain a good understanding of the neurological issue that can cause the issues which tend to be observed as behavior traits. The advances made in last decade or so have helped move away from the initial pure behavioral approach to this issues, and a greater understanding of the possible underlying causes.
You could have a look at
The Royal Society Publishing Philosophical Transactions B Theme Issue ?Autism: mind and brain? February 2003
The Royal Society Publishing Philosophical Transactions B Discussion Meeting Issue ?Autism and talent? May 2009
The Royal Society Publishing Philosophical Transactions B Theme Issue 'Evolution, development and intentional control of imitation' August 2009
Traits Contributing to the Autistic Spectrum

and you may find more useful information in my Autism ASD collection of links

Defo look up all this info as all that the posters have put will can benefit the children.

On top of this I would say quite simply really...........and that is to help the others learn understanding. That they learn how each child ticks individually and not just stamp SEN on them as one group. Help them learn that every child is soooo different, some need quite time so make a small den that is plain with no decor, some comfortable cushions on the floor, perhaps an mp3 player with music on that they can use as a calming shut the world out tool. Also have a sensory room for high excercise, cd player for dancing, trampoline, few drums or simple music instruments basically somewhere they are ALLOWED to go and be as bouncy and disruptive as they want to be for 5 or 10 minutes so they can regulate themselves.

Help them listen to the parents and not assume bad behaviour is just bad parenting as a first guess. Keep parents involved and aware of each change in routine or idea you are going to impliment so that they can a) forward their child b) get rid of that "their doing things behind my back" feeling. Work with the parents, find out what helps at home and see if you can implement it at school or readjust (sp) to fit with school.

Home/school books...........dont wait for it to be asked for or suggested by an EP. Do it anyway. It is less embarrassing and upseting for a parent to read any concerns in a book as opposed to daily talks infront of parents where you are supposed to absorb it all whilst collecting a child that is in a hurry to leave and try to have a convo in public. Write both good and bad in it. Help teachers to remember that not all parents dump their kids off at school and think "great they are off my hands"........a lot of parents worry all day because of their childs behaviour and rarely can a SN child explain their day to them when they get home. They just meltdown or become withdrawn so forwarned is forearmed as they say and a lot of upset can be avoided this way.

Simple things but it would make a difference :)

I agree with all the above posters.

Another couple of things I would like to add based on my own experience.

• Treat the parents as intelligent people, but also treat them sensitively. Its very hard to hear that your child is struggling at school, or that they are disruptive and if its done in a blunt way it can be even harder to hear.

• Speak to the parents. They might have ideas and strategies that will help the behaviour at school to be better.

I agree about Home School diaries.

There are centres of Autism at Sheffield Hallam University and Birmingham University. You can do MA's in Autism (via Distance Learning) at both those places, and I think at Cardiff uni too - Peachy would know.

That's interesting about your work Indigo (3 week trials.)
What is it you do?

Agnes, Headsprout and Precision Teaching are ABA!
There's a lot more to ABA than EIBI (early intensive behavioural intervention) for kids with ASD.

Moondog I know they are ABA, they are just a more LA friendly sounding way of getting it in through the back door! That don't create the same panic

Moondog - I'm a computer programmer, and we follow an agile philosophy.

This means we release a new version of our software as often as possible (in our case every 3 weeks)

At the end of each cycle we have a retrospective meeting where, we discuss what went well and what didn't go well in the last 3 weeks.

Then we choose one or 2 things that didn't go well, ( ie we released late, or with bugs, or we wrote the wrong thing) and think how we could do a better job next time.

Then we agree a new way of working and set it up as an experiment. ie if the developer talks to the tester before starting work on a new feature, we think it will contain less bugs.

Then in 3 weeks time we measure the results of the experiment (in this case number of bugs found ) and decide whether to keep this part of the process or to change it.

We view everything as a 'system problem' not an individual problem. If the software was released with bugs, then it's because something in the system went wrong (not just the person who put the bug in). And the way to fix it for next time is to fix the whole system.

And everything is a learning experiment.

Why 3 weeks?
That's a short time.
Do you get the info. you need in that time.

Interesting.
I think tighter models such as these would be really effective in schools.
We use it in Precision Teaching. Data on a child's progress (fluency based) is tracked on the semi-logarithmic standard celeration chart. If there is no change after 3 days we change our teaching.

Avoids the 'He can't learn because he has SEN' logic endemic in this field and a smokescreen to cover poor treaching practice.

Michale Maloney's mantra is
'If the child hasn't learnt, the teacher hasn't taught'.

I've gone from despising business models like Macdonalds to admiring them. I|f we can get that level of consistency into teaching with regards to the delivered product, we would all be so much better off.

IB. Headsprout folk did a very interesting and amusing presentation at a conference I attended this year on when/if to suddenly go 'Tada!!! It was ABA all along. Skinner with whistles and bells!!!'

I am not surprised that LEA flinch at expensive home based EIBI myslef.

We only do it in 3 week cycles because we're not good enough to do it in 1 week cycles!

We get the data we need because we've gone through a whole product lifecycle in those 3 weeks - from requirements gathering to developing to release.

Our motto is 'fail fast'! ie learn from your mistakes as quickly as you can.

So yes, it is along the same model as precision teaching. And in a business model, and in a team model, there is no one to blame besides the team, so we just have to keep learning and improving.

'in a business model, and in a team model, there is no one to blame besides the team, so we just have to keep learning and improving.'

I love it!!

That's interesting Indigo - my dh is a Cert Scrum Master. He loves Agile and can bore talk for hours about it. (Wonder where ds1 gets it from! )

In fact he gave a lecture on it at a local Uni this morning that was really well received and now says he wants to do more lectures.

I agree with the comments that several have made about engaging the parents more. Many are highly educated (graduates who have met at work and 'systemic' in their thinking ! ) . Often they can share strategies that work at home. Also many have worked with medical professionals who have developed some kind of programme that can be implemented at school.
Parental input is a 'free' resource.

Bloody Hell Indigo, I'm very impressed.

Isn't there a private special school in Wales that does something similar to Indigo? I understand the HT spends most of his time jet setting the world looking for new ideas and research and is so successful he offers money back guarantees.

I haven't heard about any school in Wales - but I haven't looked :)

The management philosophy is called 'lean' - so I just googled 'lean in education' and found this interesting website.

The idea (of lean) is to get rid of all waste (things that don't deliver value)

It would be great to help turn a school 'lean'.

And would certainly change the way SEN and IEPs were handled....

And a Lean in Education Whitepaper :)

Agnes, would love to have some IEP's based on ABA. Please could you send me a copy too? We are in the process of sorting out ds's IEP. Just PMed you my email address.

I consider parents a no. 1 resource and am of the firm belief that if we let them know exactly how it is they can help, they will then do it.
This is the core of much of my work and I have just had an article accepted on it in a professional publication.

Thanks for the LEAN paper Indigo.
Look forward to reading.

Hi Indigo

Fellow (former) programmer here but you wouldn't recognise the languages we used back in 1979! I gave up when SQL replaced QUEL!